I had a teacher who picked on me when I was 7 and in the infants still. Her name was Miss Jones and she was from Wales. She picked on me just because I wasn't from Wales or had any Welsh relatives.
She was tall and slim and i guess about 25-28. She moved to Rugby to get married.

Our class was fairly close knit. I was with the footballers and out main aim at that age was to get to the Junior section and get into the school football team.

At this point I would like to mention the school caretaker Mr Catchpole. He was a nice man and always seemed in a good mood. His daughter was at the school as well.

So we all move up to the junior section. The Headmaster was My Ling. A tyrant as far as we were concerned and ruled the school with fear, but he did like his choirs and music which our school had.
Unfortunately, he was later convicted and imprisoned for being a paedophile. I have no idea if this was true as he was always nice to me.
The Junior section was happy for me. The teachers were nice.
I wasn't outstanding and lacked concentration at lessons.

Eventually, I moved to the 5th form. I became a good recorder player for the music and choir. I also was a regular player for the school football team and the cricket team.

Sport was run by Mr Ramsammy who is now an executive member of the International Olympic committee. I liked him a great deal. That year we won the Essex Schools cup and won every match I think, or we drew just one game, but never lost.
We played Ripple road school in the final at Barking arena and was given our medal by a young Trevor Brooking.

At the age of about 9 or 10 I started on my football and I played every where I could. Local Fields , Saturday and Sunday teams, going on my bike everywhere.
I played for Blades United in all positions and we played in a few finals.

In these days there was no social media, phones etc, so the class members got on mainly together with little bullying or arguing.

I remember that Dad would try and help me with any homework.
I had a happy upbringing and my parents were good and kind. Dad was a docker and on strike alot, so we didn't have alot of money, but we always had a chance to get away each year in a caravan by the see. Family member were close and we visited alot. In the beginning by train and when Dad got his Anglia in 1965 we went everywhere in the car.
Saturdays, we went to see Nan and Grandad Jones at about lunchtime. Nan would give us bagels, doughnuts, paper and pencils, sweets etc. Also, we would get jewish bread and gherkins in brine. Saturday evenings we may go and visit other Uncles and Aunts from both sides. Sundays we would get visited by the Smith family. Mum would make a Sunday roast for us and then in the evening with guests we would get a Sunday salad and shell fish dinner.
This was in between going out and playing football of course.

I was quite boisterous and chased around alot.
1. I was playing kiss chase at a young age and dived onto broken glass. I still have the scar on my leg.
2. I broke my arm, falling from my bike going to football, because I was wearing football boots and my foot slipped.
3. Me and my mate Andrew Boyle broke a girls toy pram racing around in it. Dad had to get it welded.
4. I was always getting injured from sport
5. I did have some health issues. I used to getting dizzy and went to hospital, but was told i just had a vivid imagination. On the basis that I had a low heart rate it could have been anything. In those days they didn't know.
6. climbing out of the bathroom window and slipping down the rope, only to burn my hands.
7. Stepping on a hot poker in front of the fire
8. We had a gas boiler for clothes that my Mother used. I did something to this. I think I disconnected the gas pipe, leaving the gas on.
9. I used to dream alot and they were a little weird. It now seems that i had a 6th sense. Things that I dreamed about would be in a some kind of city or location. In later years I found myself in these situations and knew where I was and where I had to go or things that were there, eventhough I had never been before. I have been told by clairvoyants since that I do/did have something along these lines.

In our school and in our street we had alot of nice neighbours. Of course we had the 'bad' family. Mr & Mrs Ford. He was a labourer and they had 8 girls! Weekends were entertaining, as Mr Ford would get drunk and have arguments with Mrs Ford. Then it was the boyfriends. I think all but the eldest Pat, the girls became problems, getting pregnant and changing their boyfriends/Husbands regularly.

Mr and Mrs keys that lived next door, were lovely people so what they had to put up with I don't know.

What I can remember the seasons of the year were always lovely for me. As I said earlier, the winters were cold. when snow fell Dad would put coal fire ash on the ground so people didn't slip, but it ruined our fun of sliding. Spring was fresh and the colours always vivid. Summer  was great. That long holiday from school always seemed an age. More important was all the football I could do and racing on my bike. Autumn and especially September I can still smell the hazy smoke from bonfires and of course the mist and fog that was around then.

In those days we didn't have supermarkets etc. So our local shops were small and varied. I can remember the old style ironmongers. The old shop desk and the jars and wooden boxed shelving behind the people working in the shop- A bit like the programme 'Open all Hours' .
The old style Woolworths in our high street, was a major store.

Every week (when I was old enough) I would take our laundry in a pram and walk about a mile to the launderette for my Mum. Mum was a dressmaker and worked from home, so this helped alot.

Next: Starting to go out with girls and my teenage years